Educators ArtLab
July 6 - July 11, 2025
While spending one week dedicated to making art, educators will network with peers from around the country, have an opportunity for special tours of Kansas City’s galleries and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and learn first-hand about the Kansas City Art Institute.
Residency Cost: $425 fee includes campus housing and meals. An additional $275 is required for residents wishing to receive two graduate-level credits for their work in the program.
Studios offered in 2025 are Ceramics, Fiber, Painting, and Photography. Please see the descriptions below for more information.
Apply by March 1st to ensure scholarship consideration. Applicants are accepted until the program is full. Please contact Admissions at (816) 472-4852 or eal@kcai.edu with questions.
PAINTING
Drawing/Painting: Elemental Drawing
Instructor: Julie Farstad, Professor in Painting
$35 supply fee (students will be provided a list of additional personal supplies to bring)
How do our art practices and materials engage in a kind of cosmic awe? In this course, students will take a multidisciplinary approach to an exploration of the elements of nature such as water, earth, fire, and metal. Drawing inspiration from botany, geology, literature, and personal experience, students will explore drawing as an open-ended, experimental, and responsive practice. Students will explore a range of materials including plant and mineral inks, water soluble graphite, paper, and many materials of their choosing. The purpose of this class is to engage in drawing/painting not as an image-making process, but as a vital practice that seeks to create relationships between different types of inspiration and information. We will approach each surface not as a neutral backdrop, but as an active site for action, poetry, imagination.
FIBER
Fiber/Textile Fabrication: Felting
Instructor: Marie Bannerot McInerney, Professor in Fiber
$50 supply fee (students will be provided a list of additional personal supplies to bring)
Felting is the process of taking wool fibers and compressing those fibers into a new form with the addition of moisture and agitation. It is one of the oldest methods of making fabric and because of its direct and adaptive nature it was essential to early nomadic people. The versatility of felting makes it an ideal process to introduce into any classroom as it can be highly sophisticated while also direct and approachable. During this four day intensive, students will learn methods of working with wool to create two and three-dimensional surfaces and forms while exploring surface design and color. Emphasis in this course will be on exploring methods of felting that could inform each participant’s personal artistic studio practice as well as suggesting ways of introducing felting into the classroom.
CERAMICS
Hanging Wall Sculptures
Instructor: Elaine Buss, Visiting Assistant Professor in Foundation
$50 supply fee (students will be provided a list of additional personal supplies to bring)
Artists in this workshop will explore clay’s vast potential to become both form and surface through making wall-hanging sculptures. Versatile and approachable techniques to handbuilding will be covered, such as slab building, working with templates, and forming with molds. A scary part of making wall sculptures is safely hanging them – we will demystify this process through simple mechanisms integrated into the forms we make. Each student will choose what subject matter they want to explore in their work. Their concepts will be strengthened through surface design techniques such as underglaze painting, sgrafitto, and paper resists. Demonstrations will emphasize techniques that are transferable to classrooms (especially ones with spatial or time constraints) but will also be responsive to the participating artists’ interests.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Alternative Photography: Drawing with Light and Nature
Yuxiao Mu, Visiting Assistant Professor
$50 supply fee (students will be provided a list of additional personal supplies to bring)
In this course, students will explore alternative photography techniques, including photograms, lumen prints, chemigrams, and cyanotypes. Through hands-on experimentation, students will create unique, abstract images by combining light-sensitive materials with plants and unconventional elements like honey, turmeric, and tape, “drawing” through the power of sunlight. Throughout the course, students will learn a range of hands-on methods and darkroom techniques, challenging them to approach photography beyond the traditional camera lens and perspectival space. Students will also expand their understanding of art fundamentals such as composition, texture, and value. Collaboration and peer feedback will be essential components, fostering a creative environment for growth and experimentation. All students will have darkroom access.
EAL Pre-Session: The Art of Kansas City
We invite you to join us on Saturday, July 5th for a special pre-session for art educators. After an optional breakfast, participants will join KCAI’s Art History faculty for special tours of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art collection. We will have a catered lunch on KCAI’s campus with faculty to connect and share information related to education in the arts and meet in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District for gallery tours, including the renowned Belger Arts Center. Participants will be on their own for dinner, and KCAI staff will provide recommendations. $150, includes optional housing on Friday & Saturday nights, as well as breakfast and lunch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Participants will need to provide their own transportation to the Crossroads Arts District.